If I offer her a Mantis, a Bumble-bee, an Anoxia--the equivalent of the common Cockchafer--and other dishes probably unknown to her race, she accepts all and any, large and small, thin-skinned and horny-skinned, that which goes afoot and that which takes winged flight.

She is omnivorous, she preys on everything, down to her own kind, should the occasion offer.
Had she to operate according to individual structure, she would need an anatomical dictionary; and instinct is essentially unfamiliar with generalities: its knowledge is always confined to limited points.

The Cerceres know their Weevils and their Buprestis-beetles absolutely; the Sphex their Grasshoppers, their Crickets and their Locusts; the Scoliae their Cetonia- and Oryctes-grubs.

(The Scolia is a Digger-wasp, like the Cerceris and the Sphex, and feeds her larvae on the grubs of the Cetonia, or Rose-chafer, and the Oryctes, or Rhinoceros-beetle .-- Translator's Note.) Even so the other paralysers.
Each has her own victim and knows nothing of any of the others.
The same exclusive tastes prevail among the slayers.

Let us remember, in this connection, Philanthus apivorus and, especially, the Thomisus, the comely Spider who cuts Bees' throats.